Getting ready for Sunday with some storylines

By Ed KraczStaff writer

Thursday

Jul 25, 2013 at 12:01 AM

After months of mostly sitting empty, Lincoln Financial Field could very well be filled to the gills on Sunday.

The Eagles aren’t scheduled to play their first regular-season home game until the Chargers come to town on Sept. 15, but Chip Kelly seems intent on putting on a show inside the Eagles’ home far sooner. The team’s head coach announced that Sunday’s practice will feature players in pads for the first time on his watch.

Call it football in July — Kelly style.

Lehigh was nice, and while there are several aspects about the old gal that will be missed, there wasn’t anything she had that will compare to Sunday.

Already, more than 50,000 fans were expected for Sunday’s first of five, free and open practices. Now, with Kelly putting pads on his players and, presumably, letting them knock heads, that could swell to 60,000 or more.

Veterans report Thursday and the team will hold its first practice of training camp on Friday with all 90 players on the field at the same time. Saturday will be more of the same.

Then comes Showtime Sunday.

As your public servant, here are five story lines to keep an eye on:

That quarterback thing

You know the one: Who’s going to be the starter? Vick wanted to know in the spring, then receiver DeSean Jackson chimed in a few weeks later, saying he would like to know, too, and that he thinks it will be Vick. Of course, the two share an agent now, so there’s that.

“Can it get tense? Yeah,” said Kelly, who added on Tuesday that the QB job is most definitely wide open. “When people are competing for a starting job in the NFL . . . but it’s no different than any other position. I understand, more scrutiny is made on the quarterback position than anything else, but there’s no difference with who’s your safety or who’s your linebacker or who’s your linemen.”

Who’s got McCoy’s back?

Last year, Kelly’s Oregon offense was in the top five among all NCAA Division 1 programs in rushing the ball. Doing that in Philadelphia would certainly represent a departure from the Andy Reid/Marty Mornhinweg school of throw, throw, throw.

Running back LeSean McCoy will get his carries, but in a run-based offense more than one player will need to carry the load. Even McCoy said as much after a few air-gulping workouts in Kelly’s offense back in spring.

Bryce Brown can run and catch, too, but can he consistently hold on to the football? What about free agent and former Cowboy Felix Jones, are his legs stable enough to provide a consistent lift? Chris Polk is also in the mix and Matthew Tucker was supposed to be until he (and punter Brad Wing) failed a physical conditioning test on Monday.

Speedy and who else?

In other words, who is Jason Peters’ backup at left tackle should something happen to the perennial Pro Bowler?

It was already an adventurous offseason. He was allegedly snared drag racing in Louisiana, then tried to elude police at speeds above 100 miles per hour.

Peters recently paid a citation, which Kelly called, “a speeding ticket,” on Tuesday, then added that there would be no team disciplinary action against the line’s lynchpin.

His off-field troubles aside, the return of Peters after missing last season is huge. He looked like his former self — before the two Achilles tears — during OTAs and minicamp, but now the pads are coming out, and so will the intensity on both the offensive and defensive lines.

What if something happens to Peters, or he isn’t the same player he was before the Achilles’ injuries?

Dennis Kelly, a fifth-round draft pick in 2012, played for Peters when he was absent for two weeks of OTAs and gained valuable playing experience along the team’s battered O-line last year. He would likely be the first in line to replace Peters should that become necessary.

But the Birds also signed journeyman Ed Wang and rookie free agent Matt Tobin, who started at both left tackle and left guard at Iowa the past three seasons. They then plucked 6-8, 335-pound Michael Bamiro off the street last week, so maybe he could be an option.

Any of them sound better than last year’s replacements — Demetress Bell and King Dunlap.

If you like tight ends . . .

. . . you’re going to love the Eagles. Brent Celek has been around, so you know what he’s got. Last year, it wasn’t as much as you may be used to, so this must be a bounce-back season for him.

Watch out for the two newcomers, though. Free agent James Casey and second-round pick Zach Ertz can line up anywhere on the field and present mismatches all over the place. Kelly said in spring there may be times that all three are on the field at once, then said if opposing defenses counter with linebackers, they’ll throw. If they put in extra defensive backs, they’ll run.

After years of not getting that kind of insight from a certain, longtime head coach, it sure was refreshing to hear from Kelly.

Kelly himself

You need to be on the ball to keep an eye on the new head man. He jogs here and there and is in motion more than the backfield.

Rather than stop a practice for a teaching moment, he has, after a play was run in the spring, been seen running out to a receiver after a pass pattern, then jogging back to the huddle or the sideline with him. He has run into the line to talk to the linemen at other times during the brief time between plays.

He’s all about being efficient with time, and just seeing another face — the first since 1999 when Ray Rhodes gave way to Reid — seems, somehow, energizing.